Self-Help books: What Actually Helps?

Self-help books can offer useful tools for understanding emotions and changing behaviour, but finding an approach that suits the individual was a central theme of this week’s episode of The Nutters Club.

Host Hamish Williams and psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald explored the subject with clinical psychologist Dr Jeremy Stevenson, whose book, The 12 Levers, examines techniques found across the self-help industry.

Stevenson said he and co-author Spencer Greenberg reviewed more than 100 self-help books and over 20 therapeutic approaches, compiling nearly 500 techniques before organising them into 12 categories.

The project grew from his own experience of finding useful self-help material and later noticing recurring ideas across books and psychological therapies.

Rather than dismissing other authors, the pair wanted to make practical techniques easier to find, understand and apply.

Stevenson said advice could become unhelpful when readers were told to achieve an outcome, such as believing in themselves, without being given clear steps towards it.

He also described differences between what helps one person and what helps another. A technique that produces a breakthrough for one reader may have little impact for someone else.

MacDonald said books could help people learn about mental health, particularly if they had little previous exposure to information about emotions, anxiety or depression.

However, he expressed scepticism about books claiming to hold every answer, noting that an author’s personal experience would not necessarily translate into a solution for everyone.

The way advice is delivered also matters, he said. Readers may connect with a particular author’s language or style, even when the underlying message is familiar.

Listeners contributed recommendations and personal accounts throughout the programme, describing books that had helped them understand themselves, navigate relationships or find encouragement during difficult periods.

One caller explained how a book had become a resource she returned to over time, alongside other support for her mental health.

By the end of the programme, listeners had suggested a wide range of titles, illustrating how varied the search for helpful reading can be.

A full list of all the books referenced in this weeks episode: